presto change-o

A form of presto chango — Indicates the suddenness of a change or transformation, as a magic trick in which one object appears to be suddenly transformed into another.

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Meanings

interjection
  1. alternativeinformalAlternative form of presto chango.

    "It doesn't just go one, two, three, presto, change-o, you're cured."

    1975, Laura Keane Zametkin Hobson, Consenting Adult, Doubleday, →ISBN, page 85
    2 more examples

    Then tell them to read the sentence on the front of each flap, open the flap, and read the sentence inside. Presto Change-o! Common nouns are transformed into proper nouns, right before nouns, right before their eyes!

    2001, Karen Kellaher, Writing Skills Made Fun: Parts of Speech, →ISBN, page 13

    But then that little psychopath Willie Bosket murdered a couple of subway riders for the hell of it when he was fifteen and -- presto change-o! -- a new law was born.

    2006, Peter Blauner, Slipping Into Darkness: A Novel, Little, Brown, →ISBN, page 3
Cite this entry
APA

presto change-o. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/presto%20change-o

MLA

“presto change-o.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/presto%20change-o. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “presto change-o,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/presto%20change-o.

Source: presto change-o on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.